What Gift Can You Offer a Pope? HOW ABOUT A WIDGET?!

It doesn’t seem like seven years—but that’s how long Pope Benedict XVI has led the Church:  teaching us, praying for us, showing us by example how to live as committed followers of Christ. 

The Vatican celebrated the seventh anniversary of his election on April 19.   But what kind of gift can you give to a pontiff?  I mean, someone who has received the gift of God’s grace in abundance, someone who speaks with an authority vested in him by Christ?  Somehow, a pair of socks seems too shabby an offering; a new wallet just doesn’t cut it.

But someone in the Vatican had a very good idea:  a new WIDGET!!

The Holy Father and Internet users around the world can now download a new www.vatican.va WIDGET.  Using this new interface, researchers can transfer some of the most important content on the Vatican’s website to their own blog or website. 

Everybody wins!  The Pontifical Magisterium is enriched with another means of communication, and content of the Vatican’s website can be more widely known and more easily accessed.  And writers, researchers, columnists and bloggers can use the new WIDGET to quickly access and post the Sunday Angelus, Audiences, the Bulletin of the Holy See Press Office, and more. 

To get your very own super-duper WIDGET, go to the Vatican homepage, http://www.vatican.va/phome_en.htm.  It’s in the “Focus” area (bottom of the left column).  Click to see instructions for downloading.